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arXiv · 1801.05099

Hysteresis from nonlinear dynamics of Majorana modes in topological Josephson junctions

Jia-Jin Feng·Zhao Huang·Zhi Wang·Qian Niu
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Abstract

We reveal that topological Josephson junctions provide a natural platform for the interplay between the Josephson effect and the Landau-Zener effect through a two-level system formed by coupled Majorana modes. We build a quantum resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model by modifying the standard textbook RSJ model to take account of the two-level system from the Majorana modes at the junction. We show that the dynamics of the two-level system is governed by a nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and solve the equations analytically via a mapping to a classical dynamical problem. This nonlinear dynamics leads to hysteresis in the I-V characteristics, which can give a quantitative explanation to recent experiments. We also predict the coexistence of two interference patterns with periods $h/e$ and $h/2e$ in topological superconducting quantum interference devices.

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Jia-Jin Feng, Zhao Huang, Zhi Wang, Qian Niu. 2018-01-16. Hysteresis from nonlinear dynamics of Majorana modes in topological Josephson junctions. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.98.134515

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